Allegory versus Gory

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2004)

*SPOILERS*
For those disappointed that this is not a "zombie film," well I guess we all want to see ourselves on the silver screen.
No, no, no...but "28 Days Later" delivered enough for me. I've not seen the "Triffid" film others spoke of, but certainly "Lifeforce" and John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" (my idea of a horror masterpiece) were called to mind.
I suspect the blankness of the main character at the start of film, is one way to make it easier for a viewer to identify with him or her. Silence can speak volumes...and win Academy Awards for females. :(
Anyway, images of an abandoned metropolis are always fascinating to me. I didn't quite connect with the espirit du corps of our ragtag heroes (editing *out* the taxi cab vaudeville was a good idea). More backstory on the daughter/dad pair might have helped?
In other extra's we are "treated" to three alternative endings, I think that speaks to two things. First it speaks to the power of editing (although one of those endings is presented somewhat spellbindingly with just storyboard and the director and writer reading). Secondly it speaks to a vision of the story here that is not so strong.
Here, the main thread of the film sticks to a "you gotta have hope when skies are grey...and eyes are blood red" theme. This gets sealed by a kiss or two. Pretty safe.
The kissers both undergo transformations that come across as a bit abrupt. Jim escapes execution to come back nearly as rabid as a RAGEr. That sort of makes sense, in a "you-or-me" assault, and he did have a baptism of blood in a really wrong pitstop along the way. That was a classic, "don't go in there...please don't go in there"...moment for me. Too many of those can kill a film, hamburgers or no.
Meanwhile Selena's move to de facto motherhood from every-woman-for-herself seemed even more out of place.
All that happens at the outpost at the edge of Manchester's burning. Those scenes, while the most flawed, are the most interesting. What must happen for us to lose our humanity...is a question posed. That answer is not just being infected by some sinister virus.
What is the "nature" of man, of the world? Are bloodlust and lust such strange bedfellows? That was tempered by a very leit motif of Adam and Eve chapter two!
Also would the world cut off its England to save its commonwealths? Would we vote the whole island off during this game of Survivor?
Some assail this as it tries to be an "intelligent" film, and hey at least it tries. Ultimately the panic of the day doesn't allow for much time to philosophize...the frenetic nature of attacks is well underscored by expensive digital dithering and a far more simple sound effect. Woooosh.
Again I bought the premise of the demise of civilization, and felt tense throughout without being too easily manipulated. I'll always prefer a film that opts for allegory over the merely gory.
I think one key to these thought-thrillers might be keeping a smaller scope for the story. In the aforementioned "The Thing" we get snowed in isolation. "The Cube" exists in its own vaccum... Maybe that's a key...work in the cozy confines of a microcosm??
All told, style, soundtrack, odd bits (Jim shaving himself) I recommend seeing this with a
7/10
and suggest folks who enjoy the film read Jose Saramago's "Blindness"
Sorry this has been an even more diffuse review than normal, but one more observation. The opening with the ape strapped in front of the multiple television screens showing atrocities, is this the horror film calling the world horrific?
Do images of violence beget violence? That would be quite a controversial stance for a film. That scene with the banks of television stood out from the sort of promethean warning of lab science leading us astray in the opening.